Tag: Dissociation & Trauma

Imagine taking a hard fall off your bike and then not being able to move your arm — but your arm isn’t injured. Neither is any other part of your body. Is the paralysis all in your head? It might be. You could have what’s called conversion disorder. It’s a neurological

Somatic symptom disorder is characterised by an extreme focus on physical symptoms — such as pain or fatigue — that causes major emotional distress and problems functioning. You may or may not have another diagnosed medical condition associated with these symptoms, but your reaction to the symptoms is not normal.

Depersonalization/derealization disorder is a type of dissociative disorder that consists of persistent or recurrent feelings of being detached (dissociated) from one’s body or mental processes, usually with a feeling of being an outside observer of one’s life (depersonalization), or of being detached from one’s surroundings (derealization). The disorder is often

Suki Ling Yun-lam was a bright and capable seven-year-old before a harrowing story of neglect at the hands of her parents left her in a vegetative state, malnourished and close to death. In April, Dr Tsang Yat-ming spent two hours at the High Court explaining to seven jurors the grisly

Dissociative amnesia is one of a group of conditions called dissociative disorders. Dissociative disorders are mental illnesses that involve disruptions or breakdowns of memory, consciousness, awareness, identity, and/or perception. When one or more of these functions is disrupted, symptoms can result. These symptoms can interfere with a person’s general functioning, including

Dissociative identity disorder (previously known as multiple personality disorder) is thought to be a complex psychological condition that is likely caused by many factors, including severe trauma during early childhood (usually extreme, repetitive physical, sexual, or emotional abuse). Is Dissociative Identity Disorder? Most of us have experienced mild dissociation, which

In the weeks after a traumatic event, you may develop an anxiety disorder called acute stress disorder (ASD). ASD typically occurs within one month of a traumatic event. It lasts at least three days and can persist for up to one month. People with ASD have symptoms similar to those seen in post-traumatic

Who is going to die by suicide? This terrible mystery of human behaviour takes on particular poignancy in the wake of suicides by high-profile and much-beloved celebrities Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain. It is only natural that people want to know why such tragedies occur. Those closest to those who take their lives

Stress in early childhood leads to faster maturation of certain brain regions during adolescence. In contrast, stress experienced later in life leads to slower maturation of the adolescent brain. This is the outcome of a long-term study conducted by researchers of Radboud University in which 37 subjects have been monitored

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental health condition that’s triggered by a terrifying event — either experiencing it or witnessing it. Symptoms may include flashbacks, nightmares and severe anxiety, as well as uncontrollable thoughts about the event. Most people who go through traumatic events may have temporary difficulty adjusting

By 2050, racial and ethnic minorities will make up more than half the U.S. population. That shift underscores the importance of understanding the unique suicide risk and protective factors of different groups, says University of Houston clinical psychology graduate student Mary O. Odafe, who along with colleagues have summarised the

At times, the magnitude of suffering in the world can seem too much. In the past year alone, we’ve been confronted by headlines of gunmen massacring concert-goers, church members, and children; entertainment executives preying upon women; a sexual predator molesting upwards of 300 girls, and police officers violently responding to unarmed civilians—and these

Reactive attachment disorder (RAD) is a condition found in children who may have received grossly negligent care and do not form a healthy emotional attachment with their primary caregivers — usually their mothers — before age 5. Attachment develops when a child is repeatedly soothed, comforted, and cared for, and

A film-maker asked by the Indian government to conduct a study of male survivors of child sexual abuse has said there is a culture of indifference in the country about “what happens to men as boys.” Insia Dariwala is investigating links between unresolved male trauma and its impact in later

Facts About Women And Trauma. Traumatic events include physical, psychological and sexual abuse; terrorism and war; domestic violence; witnessing violence against others; and accidents and natural disasters. They can result in serious stress and detrimental consequences for survivors and their families. Approximately one half (50 percent) of all individuals will

When I Discovered My Brother Was A Sexual Predator. I’ve fallen out of touch with a lot of childhood friends, but how it happened with my Christie was different – more sudden, and at the time, inexplicable. Christie was my best friend. Her mother, Suzanne, was my mother’s best friend

When Combat Trauma Tests A Marriage. “I feel like a silent warrior,” a fellow military wife told me. “I don’t want people to think badly of him. They have no idea what he’s been through. But they also have no idea what I’m going through.” Though she felt isolated, this military spouse

A Knife At My Throat. Daisy was a gifted artist and in her early 20s. She had won various prizes and accolades at school and in the advertising industry for her creative presentations. However, her colleagues and friends noticed that her responses to her manager’s commendation for her artwork seemed

Understanding the Persistent Memory of Trauma. A recent follow-up article of the famous Harvard Men’s Study found that by the time one reaches the eighth decade, tragedy is a very typical part of life experience. Fortunately, only one fourth of those who are exposed to trauma have lasting emotional damage.

A Parade Square Collapse. Darrell was 19 years old when he presented for counselling, accompanied by his mother Grace. He seemed jittery and withdrawn, not making any eye contact, and remained silent throughout the initial interview. Grace did most of the talking, clarifying what transpired with Darrell during the last

Childhood Trauma Influences Brain Development. Over the last twenty years, neuroscientists studying the brain have learned how fear and trauma influence the mature brain, and more recently, the developing brain. It is increasingly clear that experience in childhood has relatively more impact on the developing child than experiences later in

The Haunting Effects Of Sexual Abuse. At our initial interview session, Jessica was emotionally distressed when she said, “When I sit down and look at my life and what had happened to me in childhood, I get very angry and very frustrated. Angry with the distortions that sexual abuse had

Children Escaping ISIS Suffer Waking Nightmares. Learning how to cope with adversity is an important part of healthy child development. When we are threatened, our bodies prepare us to respond by increasing our heart rate, blood pressure, and stress hormones, such as cortisol. When a young child’s stress response systems

Dissociated Identity Changing Psychologists’ Definition Of Self. There are three major dissociative disorders defined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), published by the American Psychiatric Association: Dissociative amnesia. The main symptom is memory loss that’s more severe than normal forgetfulness and that can’t be explained by a

My Father’s Crime. Hank was a 40 year old counsellor. He self-referred after we met at a professional counselling seminar. He said he had anxiety issues since he was a young teenager, but could not recall exactly when it started nor the circumstances behind it. What he was able to

The Midnight Driver. Alice was in her mid 20s and it was her aunt, Gladys, who referred her for counselling. Alice had been living in Canada with her father since her mother passed on, when she was very young. After completing her high school education, she arrived unannounced in Singapore

Childhood Trauma And Depersonalisation. Depersonalisation is often related to childhood interpersonal trauma and dissociated identity disorder. Sometimes, it is used interchangeably with the term derealisation. It occurs when you persistently or repeatedly have the feeling that you are observing yourself from outside your body or you have a sense that things

Watching Terror And Other Traumas Can Deeply Hurt Teenagers. Several weeks into the Gulf War in 1990, when I was working as a clinical psychologist in Montreal, pediatricians started referring children with mysterious behavior problems. A few 8- to 10-year-olds had started to wet their beds for the first time

Adulterous Traumatisation. Meg, in her 40s and a homemaker, was married to Heng. He was with a large UK multinational company, and had been in working Singapore for the last five years. They had two teenage boys living with them. Once every couple of months, Meg returned to Penang, in

The Silent Sufferer. Through a mutual friend, Thomas, news of Audrey reached me three months before I actually met her. Several of her classmates and close friends had fed back to Thomas their contradictory experiences of Audrey. They had sought to direct her towards getting counselling help, but she resisted,

Microsoft Safety Moderators Suffer PTSD. Just watching others being injured, tortured or murdered, without participating in it, or surveying its gruesome aftermath, or being continually exposed to such incidents, can result in vicarious traumatisation. And when the symptoms are beyond the acute stage, it is categorised as post-traumatic stress disorder

Trauma And Recovery. The ordinary response to atrocities is to banish them from consciousness. Certain violations of the social compact are too terrible to utter aloud: this is the meaning of the word unspeakable. Atrocities, however, refuse to be buried. Equally as powerful as the desire to deny atrocities is

Europe Failing A Generation Of Traumatised Children. With 8 million refugee children in Europe, psychological and medical assistance to these traumatised kids will inevitably be stretched to its limits in the years to come. No doubt many would have the inherent personal resource of resilience, but the costs will probably

An Umbrella Attack. Griffith was the CEO of a successful construction conglomerate that his father started, while his wife, Jenny, helmed her own medical consultancy firm. They were not a young couple, when Andrew was born. They had been at odds which parent Andrew ought to follow to church, as

The Lady Who Would Blow Up Her Home. My mobile phone suddenly rang at about 10.00pm. It jerked me awake. It was one of the church’s pastors who were on duty that evening. The police had called him and passed on an urgent message for me to return call. A

Physical Health Problems After Single Trauma Exposure. Research has established that chronic stress, including traumatic events, leads to adverse health outcomes. The literature has primarily used two approaches: examining the effect of acute stress in a laboratory setting and examining the link between chronic stress and negative health outcomes. However,

The Hide-And-Seek Lady. Susan was in her late 20s and happily married to James. She had been diagnosed with schizophrenia 4 years earlier when she had what appeared to be a psychotic break, and was hospitalised for two weeks. She also suffered from depression, and was prone to suicide ideation.

The Frozen Adult. During the initial interview, her voice trembled as Lean recalled her past traumas, and suddenly she blanked out in the middle of her story. She turned to me and seemed to stare right through me; her mind elsewhere. She sat there in a trance state, fully engaged

Childhood Trauma Could Be Mistaken For ADHD. Trauma and ADHD have diverse diagnostic criteria, but some of the symptoms can be misinterpreted for one or the other. Particularly in an educational environment, it is likely that initial symptoms of severe adversity could be misdiagnosed as ADHD. This article tracked a

Healing and Growth After a Mass Murder. On August 5, 2012, a massacre took place at the Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, where 40-year-old Wade Michael Page fatally shot six people and wounded four others. Page committed suicide by shooting himself in the head after he was shot in the stomach by a responding police

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“[To the Church in Laodicea] “To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation. Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and […]

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Astronomy Picture of the Day

IC 59 and IC 63 in Cassiopeia. Image Credit & Copyright: Ken Crawford (Rancho Del Sol Obs). Looking toward the constellation Cassiopeia, the colourful skyscape features the swept back, comet-shaped clouds IC 59 (left) and IC 63. About 600 light-years distant, but they are slowly dissipating under the influence of ionizing ultraviolet radiation from hot, luminous star gamma Cas. Gamma Cas is physically located only 3 to 4 light-years from the nebulae, off the upper right edge of the frame. Slightly closer to gamma Cas, IC 63 is dominated by red H-alpha light emitted as the ionized hydrogen atoms with electrons. Farther from the star, IC 59 shows proportionally less H-alpha emission but more of the characteristic blue tint of dust reflected starlight.

Hours before the rise of the very star it will study, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe launched from Florida Sunday to begin its journey to the Sun, where it will undertake a landmark mission. The spacecraft will transmit its first science observations in December, beginning a revolution in our understanding of the star that makes life […]

Transforming the inhospitable Martian environment into a place astronauts could explore without life support is not possible without technology well beyond today’s capabilities.

The Human Brain

The attention span of the human brain is getting shorter. We have lost almost four seconds of our attention span in the past 15 years. This means we cannot concentrate on a thing for more than 8 seconds on an average.

Mangroves could well be our last line of defense against climate change. But they're under threat.

ʻAulani Wilhelm

Imago Dei

The Kayapo are an indigenous people in Brazil, from the plain islands of the Mato Grosso and Pará in Brazil, south of the Amazon Basin and along Rio Xingu and its tributaries. They call themselves "Mebengokre," which means "people of the wellspring." In 2010, there was an estimated 8,638 Kayapos. Subgroups include the Xikrin, Gorotire, Mekranoti and Metyktire. Their villages typically consist of a dozen huts.

Source: World Food Programme Country: occupied Palestinian territory The funds – channelled through ECHO – will allow about 210,000 extremely poor people to purchase the food of their choice for one and a half months, the agency said.JERUSALEM – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) in Palestine welcomed a contribution of €2.95 million (US$3.6 […]

Source: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Country: China, India Fall Armyworm could threaten the food security and livelihoods of millions of small-scale farmers in Asia as the invasive crop-eating pest is highly likely to spread further from India.FAO offers its expertise to farmers and governments in Asia on best ways to manage […]

National Flag of the Mauritania

The flag of Mauritania is a green field containing a gold star and crescent, with a red stripe at the top and bottom of the field. It was adopted on 1 April 1959. Green is used to symbolise Islam, and the gold is for the sands of the Sahara desert. The two red stripes, which represent the efforts and sacrifices of the Mauritanians, the price of their blood to defend their country.

Exercise normal precautions in Burma. Some areas have increased risk. Read the entire Travel Advisory. Do not travel to: Maungdaw, Rathedaung, Ponnagyun, and Buthidaung townships in Rakhine State due to civil unrest. Paletwa township in Chin State due to civil unrest. Hpakan, Mansi, Momauk, Sumprabum, Tanai, and Waingmaw townships in Kachin State due to civil […]

Reconsider travel to Haiti due to crime and civil unrest. On July 9, 2018, the U.S. government authorized the voluntary departure of non-emergency U.S. government personnel and their families. Violent crime, such as armed robbery, is common. Protests, tire burning, and road blockages are frequent and often spontaneous. Local police may lack the resources to […]

Narsturtium

Latest update: Summary - addition of information; there have been an increased number of political protests, centred on the main government building in Bucharest, but also affecting other major cities in Romania; you should follow local media and avoid demonstrations or other large gatherings

Latest update: Travel advice for the territory of American Samoa will now be included in our travel advice page for the USA. This page will be removed from GOV.UK shortly. If you have subscribed to receive email alerts for American Samoa, you will no longer receive updates. If you wish to continue to receive updates […]

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Work of Art

Known as “the prehistoric Sistine Chapel,” the Lascaux Caves, a cave complex in southwestern France, contain some of the most remarkable palaeolithic cave paintings in the world, from at least 15,000 years ago. The cave was discovered on 12 September 1940 by four teenagers, Marcel Ravidat, Jacques Marsal, Georges Agnel, and Simon Coencas, as well as Ravidat’s dog, Robot. Public access was made easier after World War II. By 1955, the carbon dioxide produced by 1,200 visitors per day had visibly damaged the paintings. The cave was closed to the public in 1963 in order to preserve the art.

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If you lose face, your status falls and you aren't respected as much as you were.

Pray for Christians in India

FATHER AND SON BRUTALLY ATTACKED BY RADICALS. Click on image for more information.

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Creation is enthralling and mysterious, and the wisdom of God remains perennially unfathomable. To know Him is to barely understand His heart but to know myself, despite the many regrettable mistakes that have been made, is to understand the sufficiency of His grace, faithfulness, and lovingkindness. My enriching journey with Him took me through the halls of national service (the army), auditing, cross-cultural missionary service, church work, mentoring, psychology, and caregiving. Although now in retirement, I am still very much a learner at heart and an avid reader, and despite the smudges in life, I love it. Eternity then becomes a lifelong expectation. Zheluo Cai

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Click on the image for further information on persecution.

Christian Love

Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. 1 Corinthians 13: 4 - 8.